The paper pays specific attention to the issue of Italian cities faced with the changes imposed by globalisation. In the paper I have taken into account that today italian cities are referrable to urban systems. So, from this point of view I have tried to examin the capabilities of urban systems to networks at local and global level in order to cope with the new global challenges.

Abstract

The paper is focused on the issue of urban regions applied to the Italian context and dealt with in terms of networking of urban systems. The main goal of the paper is to describe the actual networking among Italian cities in order to cope with the global challenges.

Starting from the consideration that the European cities have changed their nuclear form into a network patter, the hypothesis on which the paper is based on are: a) the Italian cities can be considered middle-sized cities in comparison with numerous large cities in the global world; b) the impact of globalisation has increased the competition among territories but also the co-operation among actors; c) the cities can be described as social and political actors, that establish not only in their inside local networks but also outside sovra- and trans-local networks in order to valorise the endogenous potentialities, to compete at global level and to improve the position in the urban and territorial hierarchy.The study takes into account the interesting results - with regard to the theme of the paper - of a recent research carried out by an Italian group of researchers on Italian urban systems. The research was carried out through an analysis based on the degree of functional openness (globalisation) and the degree of regional cohesion. From this research, it is possible to trace a framework of the regional patterns of the Italian urban systems, mapping them on the Italian context.

Starting from these results, I have tried to point out some general issues. In particular, putting emphasis - with regard to the networking among urban systems - on a) the role of the link of the territory to the physical space; b) the significance to pass from a local milieu to a metropolitan milieu to compete at global level; c) the requirement to elaborate new instruments to regulate and promote form of active territoriality such as that of urban regions; d) the role of the regional cohesion to support networks relations.Finally, I have tried to give some considerations on specific regional aggregations in the Italian context.